Computer data is increasingly stored “in the cloud”; that is, stored in distributed data sources available over a ubiquitous network such as the Internet. Although often considered amorphous or abstract, data stored “in the cloud” resides in very real, physical storage devices such as computer servers and storage networks. Such physical data storage devices may be, and usually are, scattered across the world. Further, each physical data storage device may store cloud data belonging to numerous cloud data customers. However, the cloud data is usually presented as an abstract, unified data store to each cloud data customer. Thus, the physical data storage location or storage layout of the cloud data is usually invisible to the cloud data customer. Some cloud service providers provide general information on the country or region where cloud data centers are located. Additionally, some cloud service providers allow cloud data customers to purchase a so-called “dedicated cloud” to store data in a known location, at increased cost.
Governmental and other regulatory requirements may restrict a cloud data customer's ability to store data in certain physical locations. For example, the United States government restricts data relating to certain export-controlled technologies from being stored in certain controlled countries.